Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
A Dose Of Upbeat And Inspiring News
Good News Network: Depression Patients Treated With Psychedelic Mushrooms 5 Years Ago Are Still 'Symptom-Free'
Patients with clinical depression and treated with naturally-occurring psychedelic compounds are still free of symptoms five years later, according to new research. ... The study involved participants from a trial published in 2021 that found psilocybin—the primary psychedelic substance produced by mushrooms—was effective at treating major depressive disorder when combined with psychotherapy in adults. (Corbley, 9/16)
AP: A Robot Programmed To Act Like A 7-Year-Old Girl Works To Combat Fear And Loneliness In Hospitals
Days after Meagan Brazil-Sheehan’s 6-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia, they were walking down the halls of UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center when they ran into Robin the Robot. “Luca, how are you?” it asked in a high-pitched voice programmed to sound like a 7-year-old girl. “It’s been awhile.” Brazil-Sheehan said they had only met the 4-foot-tall (1.2-meter-tall) robot with a large screen displaying cartoonlike features once before after they were admitted several days earlier. (Golden, 9/19)
Today: An Uber Driver Stayed By His Side When He Was Alone In The ER. 7 Years Later, They're Still Friends
Seven years ago, a college freshman named Joey Romano was skateboarding near the University of Texas at Austin when he swerved to avoid a car and slammed into a ditch, breaking his wrist. Romano made a choice that would change his life, though he couldn’t have known it at the time: He called an Uber instead of an ambulance. “I didn’t have very good insurance, and I was worried about the cost,” Romano, now 29. (Abrahamson, 9/16)
North Carolina Health News: Cedar Oaks Clinic Is Reimagining What Mental Health Care Can Look Like
Adam, who has a history of childhood trauma and treatment-resistant depression, had never felt understood by any of his mental health providers. “Appointments were 15 to 30 minutes tops, and I felt that I was just part of an assembly line … like one in, one out,” he said. “I felt like no one wanted to get to know me, to find out what was going on.” At Cedar Oaks Clinic, a mental health practice in Wake Forest, N.C., Adam found people who he said took the time to listen and understand him. “They’re the most kind and caring providers I’ve ever had in my entire life,” he said. (Knopf, 9/23)
MSN.com: Scientists Hacked The Glue Gun Design To Print Bone Scaffolds Directly Into Broken Legs (And It Works)
Imagine a surgeon fixing a shattered bone not with screws or plates, but with a device that looks like a craft-store glue gun. Instead of hot glue, it extrudes a custom mix of biodegradable plastic and minerals. These scaffolds fuse to broken bones, release antibiotics, and slowly dissolve as the body heals. This new invention, known as a portable “in situ bone printer,” bypasses the months-long process of designing and fabricating bone implants outside the body. (Puiu, 9/16)
Gizmodo: Gizmodo Science Fair: A Non-Toxic Alternative To 'Forever Chemicals'
A pair of engineers has won the 2025 Gizmodo Science Fair for creating a non-toxic, recyclable, and compostable replacement for plastic and toxic “forever chemicals”—per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—in food packaging. (Lapointe, 9/22)
